


the affection in your eyes makes me hope you want me

by thursdayknight



Series: like canon but gayer 'verse [6]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Asexual Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove Comes Back, Billy Hargrove Has Powers, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fighting Monsters, Fluff, M/M, Monster Hunters, No Porn, Post-Season/Series 03, Robin is so done with the both of them, Seriously this is so fluffy it should be a crime, Soft Boys, Steve gets called a million different nicknames and I LOVE it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21527134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thursdayknight/pseuds/thursdayknight
Summary: The door to Family Video opens, the bell goes off and Steve straightens his shoulders and prepares to put his customer service game face on until he sees the person walking through the door is Billy and that? That has the tension in every inch of his body flying out of him like a puppet that's just had its strings cut.
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Billy Hargrove
Series: like canon but gayer 'verse [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1551490
Comments: 10
Kudos: 82
Collections: Stranger Things ace fic collection





	the affection in your eyes makes me hope you want me

It's the most ordinary of Thursdays in existence and something about that is shattering something in Steve. He doesn't know what it is, he doesn't know why, but it just - it just - 

He can't take it. Something in him is shattering, fracturing bit by bit until there just won't be anything left and he needs - he _needs_ \- 

The door to Family Video opens, the bell goes off and Steve straightens his shoulders and prepares to put his customer service game face on until he sees the person walking through the door is Billy and that? That has the tension in every inch of his body flying out of him like a puppet that's just had its strings cut. 

"Hey," Billy says, smile easy, eyes all warm and making Steve feel like a puddle of human goo rather than an actual human-shaped person even as it makes Robin roll her eyes.

"Hey," Steve says, his voice sounding just as stupid and just as gooey as he feels and it's obvious, it has to be obvious from the way Robin groans next to him.

She throws out a, "Alright, later, nerds," before heading for the far back corner of the store where the unshelved and (desperately) needing to be organized tapes are.

"Okay, you're friends with her again because?" Billy says as he strides forward to lean up against the counter, showcasing his biceps in a way that Steve knows is a thousand percent on purpose. But then everything Billy does is on purpose, every move he makes is choreographed and perfected, like he's a dancer in a show in some big city, like he's that level of flawless, that level of gorgeous and Steve...

Steve is just a guy who works in a video store in a small town and that's it, that's all there is to him, no more, no less.

He does his best to shrug and look unaffected. "We went through shit together," he says, smiling like it's some sort of funny joke even though it's really, _really_ not. "She's good people." 

Billy's eyebrows do a _thing_ and he says, "If you say so, sure," and it's… it's… so weird. 

It's all so fucking _weird._

 _Weird_ that Billy isn't calling Robin names. 

_Weird_ that he's here. 

_Weird_ that they're friends. 

_Weird_ that Billy came back different, calmer and fiercer all at the same time.

 _Weird_ that Billy came back _at all._

And even weirder still? Weirder than all of that? Is that all Steve wants in the whole world right now is to crawl into his bed with Billy and just… sleep with him. And like _sleep-sleep_ , not _fuck-sleep_ because Steve has little to no interest in the kind of sleeping together that ends with _stuff_ going in _places,_ much to his own (and seemingly everyone else's) everlasting dismay.

It's not even like that's something they haven't done before; they did it that first night that Billy came back, absolutely silent and out of his mind - they just… haven't done it since. Or talked about it. Ever.

And now... now Billy's snapping his fingers in his face, a smirk spread wide across his own like he's a second from laughing, like maybe this has been going on for a while now, and...

Steve shakes his head, brings himself back out of his mind and back into the real world, back into this Thursday that just _won't_ _end._ "I'm sorry, what?" he says as Billy bursts out laughing, his eyes crinkling at the corners in a way that has Steve feeling about eighteen different kinds of dumb.

"Nothing, nothing important," Billy says, shaking his head and still laughing. "They workin' you too hard in this place or somethin'?" 

Steve nods. "Or something," he says even as he wishes he could say, "No, it's just you," but he doesn't, because he can't, because even if they're friends now, even if Billy's different now, Steve doesn't know if he's _that kind of different_ and any kind of different or not, that's still the kind of thing you get punched for and Billy still really loves using his fists. So.

"Anyway," Billy says, pursing his lips to keep from laughing more and it helps but only just barely. Mostly, though, it just makes Steve notice Billy's lips more. "I was just gonna ask if you wanted to come over later," Billy says, all cool, all charm.

"Hmmm…" Steve says, pretending to give it some serious, deep thought. "Depends on what you're getting." The actual truth is he'd go over to Billy's place even if his answer was that he was gonna find a six hour long tape of paint drying on a wall, because he'd spend time with Billy doing _just about anything._ But. Best not to let Billy know _that._

"Well then I guess that depends on what you're in the mood for, Bambi," Billy says as he leans forward far enough that the pendant on his necklace clatters onto the counter. He's close enough for Steve to just about count his eyelashes and Steve has to take a deep breath in through his nose to stop himself from doing exactly that. Or worse.

Meanwhile, in the far corner of the store, Robin groans aggressively and _loudly_ and Steve ignores it (and the idea that it might have anything to do with him and his current ridiculousness 'cause _that_ is a thought he just _can't_ handle).

"I dunno," he says, cool as anything and proud as hell he's managing it, "just don't pick a horror movie or a nerd movie and it'll be fine." 

Billy gives him a careful once over, his eyes shining brightly with something teasing but affectionate and he says, "Okay," somehow managing to make that one word sound like he's saying that he sees the challenge Steve has just set before him and that he's accepting it wholeheartedly.

Then Billy's sauntering off down the main aisle, carefully studying each box as he goes, and it occurs to Steve to shout out, "And no picking any movies that are secretly scary, either, like you did last time!" 

From the back of the store, Robin calls out, "He made you watch _Aliens_ , Steven, what did you _think_ that was gonna be?"

"I don't know, cool space shit? Not monsters bursting out of people!" And then since there's no one else in the store right now, he adds, "We get enough of that shit in our daily lives, thank you very much!" 

Robin snorts, shouts, "Whatever, dingus," and out of the corner of his eye Steve sees Billy smiling and shaking his head. 

"Okay, princess," Billy says, sarcasm dripping heavy from his every word even though there's only been two of them so far, "nothing scary." He picks up a copy of _The Fox and the Hound_ and holds it up above his head. "What about this one?"

Steve looks at the tape, rolls his eyes as dramatically as he knows how and huffs as best he can. "Oh, fuck off, man," he says, trying to sound irritated and nailing it even as inside he's smiling like he's five years old and this is the best shit ever.

"Sure, sure," Billy says, again barely holding off from laughing. "Sure." He puts the tape down and keeps looking, long fingers trailing over the cover of every single tape and making Steve furious and sad and - 

and - 

Filled with a kind of longing he doesn't know what to do with and that's impossible to explain to anybody else because every time he tries whoever he's talking to immediately jumps to thinking he's talking about sex and he's never been able to explain that _no, that's not it,_ that it isn't sex he's after, it's just…

He doesn't know what it is he's after other than to say that certain things about certain people do _something_ to him, like the way Nancy would flip her hair over her shoulder or the way Billy is running his long, golden fingers over the cover of every tape in the place like he owns them, owns all of them, every single one and Steve doesn't know how to put _that_ feeling into words, doesn't know how to explain it, just knows it's taking all of his energy not to stare at Billy with his mouth gaping open, just knows that he wants… _something._

Something big enough it feels like it's tearing him apart and making him feel like he might actually die if he doesn't get it, whatever _it_ is. 

But eventually, finally, after tagging every single tape in the place like he's a dog leaving his scent on everything, Billy picks a tape - _Crocodile Dundee_ \- pays for it and heads out, but not before clarifying what time Steve's off work - seven - and telling him to, "Come right over after," and making Robin mutter something neither of them quite catches if the look that flashes briefly across Billy's face is anything to go by. 

///

It takes roughly a million years for seven o'clock to roll around but finally, finally, _finally_ it does and Robin gives Steve a look, tells him, "Go, I'll close up," and he smiles at her as brightly as he knows how and says -

"Thanks, I owe you one."

"Yeah, you do, and some day I'm gonna collect," she says as he's already running out the door. 

He arrives at Billy's trailer about twenty minutes later and parks out front but waits. Takes a deep breath, then another, then another, then a few more just for good measure because he's entirely too excited for this, he _knows_ he is. 

He _knows_ this all means more to him than it does to Billy, he _knows_ it does, so he has to _calm down_ \- 

But he can't, no matter how many deep breaths he takes so he just winds up saying, "Fuck it," and getting out of the car. 

He walks to the door and knocks, waits, but he doesn't have to wait long before Billy's pulling the door open, eyes shining with that same affectionate, teasing thing as before and Steve is just as gooey, just as gone and Billy's saying, "Hey," and swinging back, letting Steve in and - 

God, he's _fucked_. Only, you know, not. Because _. You know._

"Want a beer?" Billy's asking, like Steve could ever want anything other than him. Still, he says - 

"Sure," like he does, like he _cares_ about anything as dumb as beer right now.

He settles himself into the middle of Billy's rickety, old brown couch, arms spread wide and puts his feet up on the scarred, dark wood coffee table, taking up as much space as he possibly can like if Billy owns the video store then he owns this, like maybe he can't own Billy but he's damn sure going to own this space.

Billy, smile all sharp and crooked, brings him his beer, puts the tape in and sits just past the reach of Steve's fingertips, just at the edge of the couch. Steve waits, prays and waits and he's rewarded for his patience when five minutes later Billy wiggles a little closer, leaving Steve waiting, waiting for what he's not sure exactly, but maybe it's for Billy to punch him or maybe it's for Billy to _say_ something but he wraps his fingers around the curve of Billy's shoulder and again Billy _moves in closer._ It's enough to have Steve taking sharp breaths and it's fucking ridiculous, that he's having this much of a reaction to something this small. 

And yet. 

And _yet._

Then Billy is looking at him, calm, quiet, questioning, and for a second Steve just blinks back at him, eyes deer-in-the-headlights big - like he's actually fucking _Bambi_ like Billy's always saying he is - and then he nods and Billy's inching closer, closer and it takes about ten minutes (or maybe ten lifetimes, depending on how you ask) but eventually, finally, Billy is sitting curled up next to him, cat-like and almost goddamn purring and so deliciously _warm_ that Steve stops being human-shaped in a way he might _never_ recover from.

And Steve's never wanted anything more in his _entire life._

And neither of them says anything, but Steve can't help but feel like this is the beginning of _something_ , like maybe he was wrong before, like maybe this means just as much to Billy as it does to him and clearly Billy _is_ that kind of different.

The way Billy groans and presses his face into Steve's neck can't possibly mean anything else.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment if you liked this fic! 
> 
> Also, I have a [tumblr](https://gideongrace.tumblr.com/), if you wanna come yell at me over there about ace stuff or harringrove.


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